finding happiness

with us tonight

his feet slip slightly on the polished floors as he stalks down the hall and he barely holds back the urge to take a few running steps and let himself slide the last of the distance. maybe in a past life he would've indulged, but he doesn't have the energy for that now.

he's too tired.

george pauses at the entryway to the kitchen, eyes widening at the scene before him.

the light flowing down the hallways is half-casted by the lamp in the lounge, the soft golden glow glimmering through the doorways and into the surrounding rooms. the rest of the light is radiating from a set of candles sitting on the kitchen table, splayed out over the marble with plates of food on either side.

he shouldn't have followed the light.

sapnap is sitting at one plate of food, cutlery yet to be touched, and dream is standing a mere few feet away at the counter closest to the sink, pouring two glasses of wine until he looks back over his shoulder to see george standing there.

"oh, hey george," he greets with an easy smile, screwing the cap back onto the wine and blindly discarding it on the counter behind him, close to the wall. "i thought you were asleep."

"i was," george replies, unintentionally void of emotion. he hopes that they don't notice the emptiness in the lacking lilt of his voice.

his eyes dart when he notices the quiet hum of music, gaze landing on the coffee table in the lounge. two phones sit discarded on the wood, left out of the kitchen, and one of them is playing slow, almost-classical music.

holy shit, they're having a date.

george's eyes are drawn back by dream's voice. "do you want some?" he offers, gesturing to the pans on the hob, still half-full with food which george assumes dream has spent a while cooking. unless sapnap and dream cooked together - he wouldn't label them as the type to bond over homecooked food but he also didn't suspect them to be the couple who listen to classical music and had dinner dates in the kitchen. "there's loads spare."

"pull up a seat," sapnap prompts. of course, all the seats are always at the counter. george knows it's a figure of speech, but it doesn't make him feel any less awkward.

what are the odds he stumbles in, bleary-eyed, while his two best friends are trying to have a romantic date in their kitchen? maybe the odds are high, if they do this often but, judging from the amount of effort they've put into it, he doubts this is a regular occurrence.

and now they're inviting him to join their date, because they evidently feel like they should. they live together, after all, and george knows they would never want him to feel like a third wheel in the house.

still, he can't imagine anything more embarrassing than sitting in on their date out of pity. perhaps they aren't pitying him, but rather requesting the company of their friend because they love him, even if it isn't romantic, but that makes no difference to his thoughts on the situation.

"no it's okay, i'm not really hungry," he lies, inching over to the fridge. "i just came down for a drink," he excuses, taking a bottle of water out of the door before gently pushing it shut. he could grab himself a snack, he knows that, but there's no way his friends would let him walk away with a measly packet of crisps when there's a perfectly untouched meal left on the stove.

"you can join us anyway," dream offers, but his kind words feel stale when he carries only two glasses of wine to the counter, passing one to sapnap. again, george knows they would happily give him a glass, but it's the unintended meaning behind it all. two glasses, two plates, two boys, one date. george isn't meant to be here.

"i'm still exhausted so i'm just gonna go back to sleep." it's not true. there's no chance he will sleep again now, but his friends seem to accept the excuse as they nod and bid him farewell. dream comments that george can help himself to leftovers when he wakes up again and the brunette distantly thanks him as he heads back down the hallway with a bottle of water in his hand and a pit of hunger in his stomach.

there are tears in his eyes before he reaches his bedroom door but he wipes them away before they can spill. he has no right to cry. he has no reason to be sad.

[:

i love you all

-kit